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'Bella': A delight

To say very much about Bella would spoil all the gentle suspense of a movie that celebrates family in a way that moviegoers seemingly hunger for.

'Bella' breaks the rigid Hollywood rules for moviemaking, which means a film that is better written and crafted than most studio projects. (SUPPLIED PHOTO)

By Susan WalkerEntertainment Reporter

Fri., April 11, 2008

Starring Eduardo Verástegui, Tammy Blanchard and Manny Perez. Written by Alejandro Gomez Monteverde and Patrick Million. Directed by Alejandro Gomez. In English and Spanish with English subtitles. 91 minutes. At major theatres. PG

To say very much about Bella would spoil all the gentle suspense of a movie that celebrates family in a way that moviegoers seemingly hunger for.

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A debut feature from Mexican-born American director Alejandro Monteverde, Bella has more than earned her keep at the box office. Made in 2006 for $3.3 million, the movie wowed audiences who happened upon it at that year's Toronto International Film Festival, where it was an unexpected winner of the People's Choice Award. Since its U.S. release last fall, the film has grossed nearly $8 million.

Bella breaks the rigid Hollywood rules for scriptwriting and delivers a story better crafted than most studio and indie films. Monteverde bases his tale on actual events but avoids what would have been pure melodrama in the hands of, say, one of those directors who's always making smarmy family movies with Diane Keaton.

The lead actors, like the director and his co-writer Patrick Million, are all no-names. The soundtrack goes for off-the-beaten track, not top 10. It's not a movie set in Anysuburb, U.S.A. The cinematography and editing is done with care to creating a very New York-specific, intimate film. Bella looks destined to remain in the art house cinemas for months to come.

Food and soccer are the hooks in a movie about two lost souls who meet on a day when she's fired from the restaurant where he is top chef. From flashbacks and flash-forwards (some not so wisely inserted) that function like pieces of a puzzle, we begin to ascertain the reason for the sadness in the eyes of Jose, the heavily bearded chef at a Mexican restaurant in New York City.

Some years earlier Jose (Mexican model Eduardo Verástegui), a captivating soccer champion and a local hero who played for Club Madrid, was on top of his game.

On a day when he's driving his big retro Cadillac to meet the press and announce the signing of a $2.2 million football contract, something awful happens to end his career. Now he's "running the line" in the kitchen of his brother Manny's fancy restaurant.

On the present day four or five years later, Manny fires server Nina (Tammy Blanchard, who was a dead ringer for a young Judy Garland in the TV movie Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows) for arriving late for work.

Jose finds out the reason for Nina's lateness in recent weeks and the reason matches perfectly with the source of his grief.

On a whim Jose suggests to Nina that he'll take her to the beach. But first he returns to the restaurant to berate his tightly wound brother Manny (Manny Perez) for being so inconsiderate of his employees. The true nature of this brotherhood emerges when Jose brings Nina to his parents' home in a New York borough blocks from the sea. Nina is still wearing her gaudy Mexican embroidered server's outfit when she meets Jose's amazingly close Mexican-American family. It's as if she's come home. But in this instance, Jose has something she lacks.

Love is in the details here. There's no compulsion to turn Nina, for all her attractive qualities and cracked-shell defences, into a love interest. Jose's attentions are motivated purely by compassion and then a neediness he eventually confesses.

The dialogue moves easily between Spanish and English and the close-up camera treatment – with a nod to Big Night in the restaurant scenes – puts us in the shoes and under the skins of these characters.

The easy rhythm of the shots mimics the Latin beat of the music and dance and creates a sense of joy. Jose's sorrow and Nina's predicament cause a lump in the throat, especially when we meet the solution to their problems.

But for once, one doesn't feel the tears have been wrung out of us. This is not a weepy, but a story about healing, forgiveness and redemption.

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